| dc.description.abstract | Wave climate can be described as
the distribution of wave characteristics
averaged over a period of time and for a
particular location. Coastal erosion has
significant impact from the change of wave
climate. The West coast of Sri Lanka is
identified as a severely eroding coastline
according to the Master Plan for Coast
Erosion Management in 2006. This study
quantifies the wave climate variability in the
West coast of Sri Lanka using ECMWF
(European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts) wave data, in particular,
ERA 5 collected over the years from 1979 –
2019. The occurrence of wave classes in the
study area and the temporal changes in the
wave parameters such as significant wave
height, wave period, wind speed and sea
surface temperature were analysed. Then
significant change in long-term wave climate
variability (1979-2019) and short-term
wave climate variability (2010-2019), and
the variation of wave energy in the study
area were assessed. The significant
increment has been happened in
occurrences of wave classes and the wave
parameters of the study area within the short
term of period. Results of wave energy
computations clearly indicate increase in the
residual changes of wave energy flux in the
short-term period during the Southwest
monsoon. In addition, the occurrence of
wave heights events which are greater than
2m have increased during the short-term of
period than in long-term period. The changes
in wave parameters and subsequently the
coastal retreats in study area and possible
measures are discussed in the paper. | en_US |
